Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Bed Resting... A Day in the Life

Well, it's day number 9 that I've been here in the hospital. It actually doesn't feel like it's been that many days, but also, it feels like a realllly long time ago that I was at home and at work. I was so not prepared to go to work and NEVER GO BACK HOME last Monday. It's very weird. I miss being at home and I really, really miss my cat, Gus. Every day Mark asks if he can bring me anything and every day I say "The Goose Cat!" He hasn't smuggled him here yet, although he did offer to stand outside the window (seven floors down) and hold him up for me to see. Humph. Goose would flip. out. at that! But! Gus did FaceTime me the other day, which was so fantastic that I almost got a little teary eyed! Mark followed him around with his phone while I got to watch him pretty much ignore me, but it was awesome.

So I thought I'd do a little "Day in the Life" of my time here, so I can update others to how thrilling it is being here, and also so I can chronicle this crazy experience. Here's how my days typically go:

9:00 pm - Go to sleep. Since all this laying around seems to really wear me out, I usually go to sleep pretty early. Mark stays some nights (and sleeps on this horrible little couch that I need to get some pics of, it is so tiny) and goes home some nights. We figure it makes more sense for him to go home and actually sleep well!

11:30 pm - Nurse storms in, holy cow it is bright in the hallways, takes my blood pressure and temperature. Then it's back to sleep.

5:00 am - Lab tech comes in and turns on the lights (he's nice and usually gives a "prepare your eyes warning") and then takes my blood. Ouch. I now have visible needle marks and bruises on my arm, but hey, it's for the babies, right? Back to sleep again.

7:00ish - Mark either arrives for a little visit before work, or leaves for work, depending on where he stayed the night before. We were having him stick around until we saw the nurse or doctor for the day, but they tend to come later and later and never have too much to report, so now he just heads out for work and I update him once I know more.

7:30-8:30 - Either the nurse or one of the doctors will come update me with platelet levels, blood pressure, etc. So far, these have always been a "looks good for now" update, which means yay, no babies today and I get to order breakfast! The nurse will also hook my up to monitors on my belly each morning, to hear the babies' heartbeats. The twins always knock this test out of the park! All the nurses tell us how perfect they are, how they've never seen better twins, how they are just the "cutest little babies ever " (this from looking at a strip of their heart rhythms!). So clearly the babies are in no way affected by all this drama. If it was up to them, they would keep cooking for weeks to come!

9:30 - Eat the totally awesome hospital breakfast food (sarcasm font there). I also watch the Today Show, Live with Kelly and Michael, and Wendy Williams every morning. Then I run out of good TV.

11:00 - Nothing else to do, guess I'll take a shower!

12:00-4:00 - daytime TV (yawn), lunch from hospital cafeteria (meh), nap, and generally lay around doing nothing. Being lazy really wears you out! I also still get nurses popping in every several hours throughout the day to check vitals, blood pressure, etc.

5:30 - Doctor might stop by to chat about how the day went, latest numbers, etc.

6:30ish - Mark comes up after he gets off work, runs by the house to feed all the animals, changes clothes and packs whatever new stuff I want him to bring (you should have heard me describing each piece of make-up I wanted him to bring out of the big make-up drawer!) Sometimes he brings dinner, sometimes I just order in and he eats something from home.

7:30ish - Nurse shift change, so new nurse comes by and we hook the babies up to the monitors again. As usual, they always get glowing reports! We watch nighttime TV on our limited channels (hmm, The Voice or Dancing with the Stars?)

9:00 - Tired. Mark either heads home or makes his little couch bed. Lights out, time to get a solid 2.5 hours of sleep before someone's back in the room again....

Take that, multiply it times 9, and you have pretty much experienced my time in the hospital so far. We've had lots of guests stop by with food and magazines and conversation, which is awesome. I've also had some days where I feel crappy and tired and just lay around with the curtains closed all day. But the past few days I've been feeling good and optimistic about making the most of this time, which I know is so important for our little guys. Every day I lay in this bed is another day they stay inside and out of the NICU, so I'll do anything I can to give them that chance. Every morning I wake up and look at the date on the little white board in my room and think to myself, October 9...hmm, will this day be their birthday?!